Excelsior!: The Amazing Life of Stan Lee

this is a great read. it reminds me of my grandpa telling me all of his "back in the day" stories. pick this up

Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan LeeStan Lee and George MairC. ChoP. 5This book is an autobiography of Stan Lee. Many people don't actually know who this man is. Stan Lee is the man who created and wrote comic book characters such as Spider-man, Daredevil, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, and many other charcters. Stan was also the author of these comic book characters and the editor. Stan tells us about what kind of hardships he went through and even about his personal life. I enjoyed reading this book because I always wondered how comic book creaters were able to create characters that were very descriptive. Stan even wrote a whole entire chapter on my favorite charcter, Spider-Man. In this chapter it tells about how Stan lee made Spider-Man. Stan says that he got the idea of Spider-Man by looking at a fly on the wall while he was typing. After he had seen the fly, he rushed to his artist, Steve Ditko and asked him to draw a man that had the characteristics of a spider and Spider-Man turned out to be a hit. Comic books back then cost around twelve cents, here is a quote that will amaze you. "Today, incidentally, copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 sell for up to $20,000 in the collectors' market, if anyone is lucky enough to find one."Some parts that I did not like was that it told a lot about his personal life. When I first started reading this book, I thought his personal life was interesting, but after a while, it started to get repetitive. This book also informs me about what he published and how he did it. I think Stan should've not told us about his publishers so much. After reading about so many publishers, I had to skip some parts because I didn't want to read about it.My favorite part of the book is when Stan talks about his creation of comic book characters and how he created them. It was interesting when he told me some of his stories such as being chased by a policeman that was on a horse. Stan tells stories very descriptive so I enjoyed reading this book very much. Stan writes his comic books so great that I have been influenced to read more about this great character. This book has taught me many great things about Stan Lee's life. I think this will be an enjoyable book for young adults and even adults!

I could not put this book down. I was a fan of Marvel Comics growing up and have passed on to my son quite a collection of comics. I had read many of Stan's other works regarding comics (Origins of Marvel Comics, Sons of Origins, Bring On the Bad Guys). Each of those books were excellent. However, those books dealt with nothing prior to The Fantastic Four.In this book we learn that Stan had a long career (about 20 years) in the comic book field, Marvel wasn't called Marvel until the 1960's, Stan used to churn out close to 80 titles a month in the 1950's, Stan actually wrote a few books in the 1950's that sold well, and Stan was actually going to quit the trade on the day he was told to create a superhero group (later called the Fantastic Four) for Atlas comics. And those are just of few of tidbits that are contained in this wonderfully written bio/auto bio.

Stan Lee, the world's most well-known comic book writer, is truly one of the most inventive minds of the 20th century (and shows every sign of being so in the 21st!). And now, at last, we get a look into what shaped that inventive mind into the force it is today."Excelsior!" is peppered with Stan's trademark wit as he relates humorous stories and anecdotes from his life, such as the way he single-handedly won World War II. Sandwiched inbetween are factual paragraphs by George Mair, professional biographer. Mair is quick and to the point, knowing that what readers really want is more of Stan (it's almost impossible to refer to him by his last name), so he gets the facts out there and then he gets out of the way as fast as he can. Very professional.This is a must-read for any comic book fan, anyone who wants to see how a "bio-autography" (as Stan calls them) should be written, or for anyone who's just looking for an amusing tale of a creative genius's life.Highly recommended!